Content Management Matters ™

Oh the semantic web. Such romantic and lofty notions are conjured up at even its mere mention. And now, how it sparkles so. I refer, of course, to SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") the new query technology released by the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3).

An interesting article in BusinessWeek poses an intriguing question: what is driving new media (think Web 2.0 and 3.0) -- content builders or technology developers?

Because more people are blogging than are programming, BusinessWeek author Jon Fine suggests that "In the tug-of-war between the right-brain of media and the left-brain of the platform builders, the latter have the upper hand."

Content managers, I'm sure you think your job is hard enough as it is. Sourcing good content, presenting it well, integrating it seamlessly, cataloging it, securing it, backing it up... yikes, the plate is full already.

But content management as we know it is only in its embryonic stage, and as we hurtle towards the Next Big Thing online, the only thing we can say with any certainty is that we don't know where we are headed.

As the usage of XML as the primary representation format within a content management system proliferates, the discussion revolves around how to transform said XML into a human readable format.

And what about the machines? Who is looking out for them when it comes time to consume data in a custom XML format?

Riding the hype of the Semantic Web (it isn't just around the corner; it will also make you blush), which Content Wrangler says will consist of "technologies that help people 'do stuff'," a geeky set of musicologists give us SeeqPod.

In its own way, the concept is pretty clever. You hit SeeqPod, conduct a search for a song, and in Google speed, you get real-live playable results.

If for some odd reason you find yourself in Indiana this August, try to make Technical Communication 2.0, a half-day event on Web 2.0, technology and the workplace.

Perhaps coolest of all, the opportunity is free.

There's a reason why dating will soon be dead: the Semantic Web. The universe would be hard pressed to find another who knows what you really want more than Nova Spivack, who's got a dream for artificial intelligence on the Web.